1SFTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual SFTP(1)
2
4 sftp — secure file transfer program
5
7 sftp [-46aCfpqrv] [-B buffer_size] [-b batchfile] [-c cipher]
8 [-D sftp_server_path] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file] [-l limit]
9 [-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-R num_requests] [-S program]
10 [-s subsystem | sftp_server] destination
11
13 sftp is a file transfer program, similar to ftp(1), which performs all
14 operations over an encrypted ssh(1) transport. It may also use many fea‐
15 tures of ssh, such as public key authentication and compression.
16 The destination may be specified either as [user@]host[:path] or as a URI
18 in the form sftp://[user@]host[:port][/path].
19 If the destination includes a path and it is not a directory, sftp will
21 retrieve files automatically if a non-interactive authentication method
22 is used; otherwise it will do so after successful interactive authentica‐
23 tion.
24 If no path is specified, or if the path is a directory, sftp will log in
26 to the specified host and enter interactive command mode, changing to the
27 remote directory if one was specified. An optional trailing slash can be
28 used to force the path to be interpreted as a directory.
29 Since the destination formats use colon characters to delimit host names
31 from path names or port numbers, IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in
32 square brackets to avoid ambiguity.
33 The options are as follows:
35 -4 Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
37 -6 Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
39 -a Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than overwriting
41 existing partial or complete copies of files. If the partial
42 contents differ from those being transferred, then the resultant
43 file is likely to be corrupt.
44 -B buffer_size
46 Specify the size of the buffer that sftp uses when transferring
47 files. Larger buffers require fewer round trips at the cost of
48 higher memory consumption. The default is 32768 bytes.
49 -b batchfile
51 Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input batchfile
52 instead of stdin. Since it lacks user interaction it should be
53 used in conjunction with non-interactive authentication to obvi‐
54 ate the need to enter a password at connection time (see sshd(8)
55 and ssh-keygen(1) for details). A batchfile of ‘-’ may be used
56 to indicate standard input. sftp will abort if any of the fol‐
57 lowing commands fail: get, put, reget, reput, rename, ln, rm,
58 mkdir, chdir, ls, lchdir, chmod, chown, chgrp, lpwd, df, symlink,
59 and lmkdir. Termination on error can be suppressed on a command
60 by command basis by prefixing the command with a ‘-’ character
61 (for example, -rm /tmp/blah*).
62 -C Enables compression (via ssh's -C flag).
64 -c cipher
66 Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfers.
67 This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
68 -D sftp_server_path
70 Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via ssh(1)).
71 This option may be useful in debugging the client and server.
72 -F ssh_config
74 Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh(1).
75 This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
76 -f Requests that files be flushed to disk immediately after trans‐
78 fer. When uploading files, this feature is only enabled if the
79 server implements the "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
80 -i identity_file
82 Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public
83 key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to
84 ssh(1).
85 -l limit
87 Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
88 -o ssh_option
90 Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in
91 ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying options for which
92 there is no separate sftp command-line flag. For example, to
93 specify an alternate port use: sftp -oPort=24. For full details
94 of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
95 ssh_config(5).
96 AddressFamily
98 BatchMode
99 BindAddress
100 BindInterface
101 CanonicalDomains
102 CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
103 CanonicalizeHostname
104 CanonicalizeMaxDots
105 CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
106 CertificateFile
107 ChallengeResponseAuthentication
108 CheckHostIP
109 Ciphers
110 Compression
111 ConnectionAttempts
112 ConnectTimeout
113 ControlMaster
114 ControlPath
115 ControlPersist
116 GlobalKnownHostsFile
117 GSSAPIAuthentication
118 GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
119 HashKnownHosts
120 Host
121 HostbasedAuthentication
122 HostbasedKeyTypes
123 HostKeyAlgorithms
124 HostKeyAlias
125 HostName
126 IdentitiesOnly
127 IdentityAgent
128 IdentityFile
129 IPQoS
130 KbdInteractiveAuthentication
131 KbdInteractiveDevices
132 KexAlgorithms
133 LogLevel
134 MACs
135 NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
136 NumberOfPasswordPrompts
137 PasswordAuthentication
138 PKCS11Provider
139 Port
140 PreferredAuthentications
141 ProxyCommand
142 ProxyJump
143 PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
144 PubkeyAuthentication
145 RekeyLimit
146 SendEnv
147 ServerAliveInterval
148 ServerAliveCountMax
149 SetEnv
150 StrictHostKeyChecking
151 TCPKeepAlive
152 UpdateHostKeys
153 User
154 UserKnownHostsFile
155 VerifyHostKeyDNS
156 -P port
158 Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
159 -p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the
161 original files transferred.
162 -q Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and
164 diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
165 -R num_requests
167 Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one time.
168 Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer speed but will
169 increase memory usage. The default is 64 outstanding requests.
170 -r Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and download‐
172 ing. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links encountered
173 in the tree traversal.
174 -S program
176 Name of the program to use for the encrypted connection. The
177 program must understand ssh(1) options.
178 -s subsystem | sftp_server
180 Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server on
181 the remote host. A path is useful when the remote sshd(8) does
182 not have an sftp subsystem configured.
183 -v Raise logging level. This option is also passed to ssh.
185
187 Once in interactive mode, sftp understands a set of commands similar to
188 those of ftp(1). Commands are case insensitive. Pathnames that contain
189 spaces must be enclosed in quotes. Any special characters contained
190 within pathnames that are recognized by glob(3) must be escaped with
191 backslashes (‘\’).
192 bye Quit sftp.
194 cd [path]
196 Change remote directory to path. If path is not specified, then
197 change directory to the one the session started in.
198 chgrp grp path
200 Change group of file path to grp. path may contain glob(7) char‐
201 acters and may match multiple files. grp must be a numeric GID.
202 chmod mode path
204 Change permissions of file path to mode. path may contain
205 glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
206 chown own path
208 Change owner of file path to own. path may contain glob(7) char‐
209 acters and may match multiple files. own must be a numeric UID.
210 df [-hi] [path]
212 Display usage information for the filesystem holding the current
213 directory (or path if specified). If the -h flag is specified,
214 the capacity information will be displayed using "human-readable"
215 suffixes. The -i flag requests display of inode information in
216 addition to capacity information. This command is only supported
217 on servers that implement the “statvfs@openssh.com” extension.
218 exit Quit sftp.
220 get [-afPpr] remote-path [local-path]
222 Retrieve the remote-path and store it on the local machine. If
223 the local path name is not specified, it is given the same name
224 it has on the remote machine. remote-path may contain glob(7)
225 characters and may match multiple files. If it does and
226 local-path is specified, then local-path must specify a direc‐
227 tory.
228 If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
230 transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that
231 any partial copy of the local file matches the remote copy. If
232 the remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then
233 the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
234 If the -f flag is specified, then fsync(2) will be called after
236 the file transfer has completed to flush the file to disk.
237 If either the -P or -p flag is specified, then full file permis‐
239 sions and access times are copied too.
240 If the -r flag is specified then directories will be copied
242 recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
243 performing recursive transfers.
244 help Display help text.
246 lcd [path]
248 Change local directory to path. If path is not specified, then
249 change directory to the local user's home directory.
250 lls [ls-options [path]]
252 Display local directory listing of either path or current direc‐
253 tory if path is not specified. ls-options may contain any flags
254 supported by the local system's ls(1) command. path may contain
255 glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
256 lmkdir path
258 Create local directory specified by path.
259 ln [-s] oldpath newpath
261 Create a link from oldpath to newpath. If the -s flag is speci‐
262 fied the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard
263 link.
264 lpwd Print local working directory.
266 ls [-1afhlnrSt] [path]
268 Display a remote directory listing of either path or the current
269 directory if path is not specified. path may contain glob(7)
270 characters and may match multiple files.
271 The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of ls
273 accordingly:
274 -1 Produce single columnar output.
276 -a List files beginning with a dot (‘.’).
278 -f Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is lexi‐
280 cographical.
281 -h When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes:
283 Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte,
284 and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to
285 four or fewer using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024,
286 M=1048576, etc.).
287 -l Display additional details including permissions and own‐
289 ership information.
290 -n Produce a long listing with user and group information
292 presented numerically.
293 -r Reverse the sort order of the listing.
295 -S Sort the listing by file size.
297 -t Sort the listing by last modification time.
299 lumask umask
301 Set local umask to umask.
302 mkdir path
304 Create remote directory specified by path.
305 progress
307 Toggle display of progress meter.
308 put [-afPpr] local-path [remote-path]
310 Upload local-path and store it on the remote machine. If the
311 remote path name is not specified, it is given the same name it
312 has on the local machine. local-path may contain glob(7) charac‐
313 ters and may match multiple files. If it does and remote-path is
314 specified, then remote-path must specify a directory.
315 If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
317 transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that
318 any partial copy of the remote file matches the local copy. If
319 the local file contents differ from the remote local copy then
320 the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
321 If the -f flag is specified, then a request will be sent to the
323 server to call fsync(2) after the file has been transferred.
324 Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
325 "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
326 If either the -P or -p flag is specified, then full file permis‐
328 sions and access times are copied too.
329 If the -r flag is specified then directories will be copied
331 recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
332 performing recursive transfers.
333 pwd Display remote working directory.
335 quit Quit sftp.
337 reget [-Ppr] remote-path [local-path]
339 Resume download of remote-path. Equivalent to get with the -a
340 flag set.
341 reput [-Ppr] [local-path] remote-path
343 Resume upload of [local-path]. Equivalent to put with the -a
344 flag set.
345 rename oldpath newpath
347 Rename remote file from oldpath to newpath.
348 rm path
350 Delete remote file specified by path.
351 rmdir path
353 Remove remote directory specified by path.
354 symlink oldpath newpath
356 Create a symbolic link from oldpath to newpath.
357 version
359 Display the sftp protocol version.
360 !command
362 Execute command in local shell.
363 ! Escape to local shell.
365 ? Synonym for help.
367
369 ftp(1), ls(1), scp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5),
370 glob(7), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
371 T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer Protocol, draft-ietf-secsh-
373 filexfer-00.txt, January 2001, work in progress material.
374BSD October 26, 2019 BSD